$380 USD / month
Grant Bookkeeping & Spend Tracking
Award-level spend tracking for research teams managing multiple grants — so records are always ready and reporting is never a scramble.
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Service 03 — Eligible Cost & Compliance Review
Know what's eligible, understand what isn't — before it matters.
Grant conditions can be genuinely unclear. Grantbury reviews your cost eligibility and compliance position, then explains it plainly — so your team can move forward with confidence.
What this delivers
A clear picture of where you stand — and what, if anything, needs tidying.
Eligibility assessed against your conditions
We review your costs against the specific grant conditions that apply — not a generic checklist. What's acceptable under one award may not be under another, and we work through those distinctions carefully.
Plain guidance, not technical jargon
The output of this review is written in language your team can act on. If something needs attention, we'll say what it is, why it matters, and what a sensible next step looks like.
Issues identified while there's time to address them
A compliance concern found before a report deadline is manageable. The same concern raised by a funder during an audit is considerably less so. Early review changes what's possible.
The uncertainty many teams carry
Grant conditions are written by funders, not by people who have to apply them day to day.
Most grant agreements contain language about eligible costs that sounds clear until you try to apply it to a specific purchase or activity. Then the uncertainty sets in. Is this travel claim eligible? Can this equipment be split across two awards? Does this consultancy contract meet the funder's definition of an allowable cost?
Research teams make judgment calls on these questions all the time — often under time pressure, and often without a specialist to refer to. Some of those calls are fine. Others create compliance gaps that only surface when a funder looks closely.
It's not a question of carelessness. It's a question of whether the right expertise was available at the moment the decision was made.
Eligibility rules that vary between funders
A cost that one funder explicitly permits may be excluded — or simply unmentioned — in another award's conditions. Running several grants at once means keeping those distinctions straight across every purchase.
Conditions that aren't straightforward to interpret
Phrases like "directly attributable costs" or "reasonable overhead" leave real room for interpretation. Without experience of how funders read those phrases in practice, it's difficult to be confident you've got it right.
The cost of discovering problems late
Compliance issues found during an audit or at grant closeout are much harder to resolve than the same issues found in advance. The gap between those two scenarios is usually a matter of when someone looked.
How Grantbury approaches this
A careful review that's designed to help, not to catch you out.
We approach compliance reviews with a straightforward goal: to give your team a clear and honest picture of where your project stands, and to identify anything that would benefit from attention before it becomes a problem. We're not here to produce a list of failures. We're here to make things tidier.
The review begins with your grant agreements. We read the conditions that apply to each award — eligibility rules, approval requirements, reporting obligations — and then look at the costs that have been recorded against them. Where costs are clearly eligible, we confirm that. Where something needs a closer look, we explain why and what options exist.
Everything we produce is written in plain terms. If a cost needs to be reallocated, returned, or handled differently going forward, we'll say so directly — and explain what that means in practice for your team.
01
Grant conditions review
We read your award agreements and identify the eligibility rules, cost categories, and compliance obligations that apply to your project.
02
Cost-by-cost assessment
We review the costs recorded against each award, assessing eligibility and flagging anything that sits in uncertain territory.
03
Plain findings summary
We produce a clear written summary of what was found — confirmed eligible items, items to review, and any specific recommendations for what to address.
04
Follow-up conversation
We walk through the findings with your team — answering questions, explaining any grey areas, and making sure the guidance is genuinely useful to act on.
What working together looks like
A process that feels collaborative, not adversarial.
A compliance review can sound like an inspection. It isn't — or at least it shouldn't be. Ours is designed to feel like a knowledgeable colleague going through things with you, not an auditor looking for problems to record.
At the start
We'll ask for your grant agreements and your current cost records. If records are incomplete or in early stages, that's fine — we'll work with what exists and note where additional documentation would strengthen your position.
During the review
We work through the materials methodically. If a question comes up that we'd like your team's input on — context around a particular purchase, for instance — we'll ask directly rather than drawing a conclusion without it.
The findings
You receive a written summary that's organised clearly: what's confirmed eligible, what needs attention, and what we'd suggest you do about the latter. No dense legal language, no ambiguous conclusions left hanging.
After the review
We're available for follow-up questions as you work through any recommendations. If something in the findings raises a further question, we'd rather you asked than guessed.
Investment
A single fixed fee for a complete, unhurried review.
Eligible Cost & Compliance Review
$560 USD
One fixed fee for the complete review — covering all active awards, a written findings summary, and a follow-up conversation with your team.
What's included
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Full review of grant conditions across all active awards
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Cost-by-cost eligibility assessment against funder requirements
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Identification of any compliance gaps or items requiring attention
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Written findings summary in plain language with practical recommendations
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Follow-up conversation to walk through the findings with your team
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Short-term follow-up access for questions arising from recommendations
If your portfolio is particularly large or complex, we're happy to discuss scope and pricing before you commit. There's no obligation to that conversation.
Why this works
The value of a compliance review is mostly in its timing.
Compliance reviews done after the fact — once a funder has raised concerns or an audit has begun — are largely damage-limitation exercises. The issues are already in the record. The most that can be done at that point is to manage the response.
A review done proactively — before a major reporting milestone, before grant closeout, or simply when a team wants to understand where they stand — changes the equation entirely. Problems can be addressed. Records can be corrected. In many cases, costs that appeared problematic turn out to be fine once the conditions are read carefully with fresh eyes.
The difference isn't usually the severity of the issues. It's whether there was time to sort them out.
Good moments to commission a review
Before a major interim or annual funder report. Ahead of grant closeout. When a new team member has taken over financial responsibility. When a new award has conditions that differ from previous ones.
What the output looks like
A clear written document, structured by award. Each section covers what was reviewed, what was found, and what — if anything — we'd suggest doing differently. Practical rather than exhaustive.
How long it takes
Typically one to two weeks from when we receive your grant documentation and cost records. For straightforward portfolios it can be quicker; for more complex ones we'll give you a realistic estimate upfront.
Our commitment
Guidance you can act on, from people who will stand behind it.
We know that commissioning an external review of your compliance position involves a degree of trust — trust that the findings will be honest, that the guidance will be useful, and that the people delivering it understand the territory. We take those expectations seriously.
If you read the findings summary and find that something is unclear or that a recommendation needs more explanation to act on, we'll take you through it until it's genuinely useful. Handing over a document and stepping back isn't what we're here for.
And if you'd like to have a conversation about your situation before commissioning a review — to understand whether it would be worthwhile and what it would involve — we're happy to have that conversation without any obligation.
Honest findings, not comfortable ones
If there's a genuine concern in your records, we'll tell you clearly — not soften it to the point of being unclear. That's what a useful review requires.
Fixed fee — no scope creep charges
The $560 fee covers the full review. We don't add to it because your portfolio turned out to be more detailed than expected.
No-obligation preliminary conversation
Get in touch with your situation and we'll tell you honestly whether a review is likely to be useful and what it would cover. No pitch attached.
Getting started
A simple process from first contact to finished review.
01
Get in touch
Use the contact form or email [email protected]. Tell us which awards you're managing and what's prompting you to consider a review — a report coming up, a closeout, or simply wanting to know where things stand.
02
We agree scope and timing
We'll confirm what documentation we need from you, how long the review will take, and when you'll receive the findings. No surprises on either side.
03
Review, findings, follow-up
We complete the review, deliver a clear written summary, and walk through it with your team. You leave with an honest picture of where things stand and what — if anything — to do next.
Questions before reaching out? You're welcome to email [email protected] directly — we're glad to answer them.
Eligible Cost & Compliance Review
Know where you stand — before your funder asks.
If you're managing grant-funded work and could do with a clear, independent view of your compliance position, we'd be glad to help. No pressure, no obligation — just a useful conversation to start.
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